Is there a legitimate way to feel about things? Are certain feelings callous or simply wrong? These are difficult normative questions to answer, but it does seem that mass-society creates and dictates how 'normal' people must feel about something. This mentality claims that anybody who does not have these legitimate feelings is somehow confused or wrong, and must be adapted.

Think about our post-9/11 world. As an American you must be abhorred by September 11th, and talk about the bastards who killed so many people. You simply are not allowed to symapthize with terrorists or even suggest that their ideas might have merits or that the United States is an unjust society that unfairly mettles in Middle Eastern Politics. Arabs are wrong, and oppressing them is the normal way to feel.

You see a body bag on television that once was a living human being who gave his life to our country. You may not be angry at the United States government for taking this person's life away. Mass-society dictates you may only be slightly saddened and feel a strong patriotic feeling towards that person.

During the holiday season, we must celebrate consumerism and excessive giving of wasteful presents. To do anything else would be inappropriate, a sign of depression or some kind of other mental illness. We may not critique or look at the results of the holidays, but only blindly accept them. That's the only form of legitimate feelings.

Feelings and their subsequent reactions are standardized and forced upon people. We as individuals are denied the autonomy to create our own reactions and thoughts, and we must only accept those that have been pre-defined to us. This notion is incredibly dangerous, as it leads us to an unquestioning political position that dictates that mass-society must always be right.